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Amptastic Mini-1 for sale again

wulbert

wulbert

pfm Member
These tiny, tripath amps seem to have a following, so just a heads-up that they are for sale again on the usual auction site. Seems to be a limited batch, until chip stock runs out.

I got one this week and it is very good. It is not being allowed to shine properly as it is powering budget speakers, mounted on top of kitchen units, about 4 inches from the ceiling with a resonating cooker hood in-between. However, it passed the test of making my wife sing along and dance to the music and comment on how good the sound was.

I have no connection or interest in the company. Just like to see good stuff being made in the UK.

eBay link here.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Mine arrived too, but hasn’t yet been pressed into service because I have other stuff on the go, but it’s a dinky little thing and I’m looking forward to having a play with it.
 
Nice little amp, there’s another thread somewhere. I’ve got one myself as a spare. Great little amp, but view it as good to about 6-8 Watts, IIRC the Tripath chip’s 20 Watt spec is at around 5% THD. If you have efficient speakers or listen quietly it can be surprisingly good.

PS I’ve added an affiliated eBay link.
 
wulbert said:
These tiny, tripath amps seem to have a following, so just a heads-up that they are for sale again on the usual auction site. Seems to be a limited batch, until chip stock runs out.

I got one this week and it is very good. It is not being allowed to shine properly as it is powering budget speakers, mounted on top of kitchen units, about 4 inches from the ceiling with a resonating cooker hood in-between. However, it passed the test of making my wife sing along and dance to the music and comment on how good the sound was.

I have no connection or interest in the company. Just like to see good stuff being made in the UK.

eBay link here.
Click to expand...
Who knew? https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/amptastic-mini-1-available-again-in-limited-numbers.277003/
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I’ll let them both run as one is tucked away in the interesting eBay auction room. pfm does get paid for eBay links so I don’t mind advertising it at all.
 
I bought the Sonic Impact Super T when it came out, which I used with the 96dB Opera horns I owned at the time and it didn't live up to the hype, particularly with more complex sound (orchestral) and the treble lacked definition on fuzzy side. Did not try it with a decent PSU.
As chip-amps go, the 47Labs Shigaraki was a much better amplifier but the best sound I got from those speakers was using a Hafler TA1600.

But it's the kind of thing that's so cheap there's no loss in trying...
 
I used the Amptastic with Klipsch Heresys and La Scalas and it sounded very good to my ears. I ran it both with the supplied switch-mode PSU and with a linear (test bench) supply. The Amptastic was certainly better than a similar Toping amp I had previously (TP22 or something, I think I’ve still got it) in that it was silent and cleaner at low levels (there was always a hint of switch-mode ‘whine’ via the La Scalas with the Topping, though they’ll find noise in anything being 104db sensitivity!). Whilst there is obviously a character similarity with all these Tripath amps the execution does still matter and the Amptastic is very nicely put together.
 
With the Tripath stuff it was chip dependant, the TA2020 chip was always the one people raved about and ended up going into much better built designs.

I had the Lehmann Stamp power amp version which was stunning. I also have the original Topping TA2020 and for what it cost it is also crazy VFM. The TA2024 and other variants were never anything other than mediocre IMO.
 
The Amptastic is a TA2020 unless any spec has changed recently. My suspicion is these are NOS from a few years back as, AIUI, the TA2020 was an obsolete chip so supplies were finite.
 
Yes hence Amptastic using it for the basis of a better built model, I can't remember anyone else doing the same for the other Tripath chips which says a lot.
 
matt j said:
With the Tripath stuff it was chip dependant, the TA2020 chip was always the one people raved about and ended up going into much better built designs.

I had the Lehmann Stamp power amp version which was stunning. I also have the original Topping TA2020 and for what it cost it is also crazy VFM. The TA2024 and other variants were never anything other than mediocre IMO.
Click to expand...

That could explain my findings.
 
matt j said:
Yes hence Amptastic using it for the basis of a better built model, I can't remember anyone else doing the same for the other Tripath chips which says a lot.
Click to expand...

I think Temple Audio did similar with the Bantam range, though I don’t know what chip they used. They were well regarded little amps.
 
The downside with the TA2020 chip is it's low power: 13W @ 8Ω, 10% THD+N :eek:

You'll definitely need high-sensitivity speakers and maybe use someting else for the woofer.
 
Yes it's only 8-10w at a push. Although I never had any issues with normal speakers at normal volumes, I think folks who like to rattle the windows probably wouldn't get on with one.
 
You don't really get a sense of just how tiny these things are until you see one, however, looking at their photo of the back panel certainly gives a clue.

s-l1600.jpg
 
I have the Amptastic, Temple monoblocs and the Bantam Gold and rave about all of them in appropriate threads.

The Amptastic is marginally the best of the bunch but the least capable at driving speakers. Used as a power amp only with a Sean Jacobs DC2 PSU into efficient speakers (I used Audio Note AX2s) I wouldn’t swap it for anything under a grand and can only think of a few I’d prefer under 2, my Leak ST20 being one of them.
 
tuga said:
The downside with the TA2020 chip is it's low power: 13W @ 8Ω, 10% THD+N :eek:

You'll definitely need high-sensitivity speakers and maybe use someting else for the woofer.
Click to expand...

0.03% THD at 10W into 4 Ohm. If folk think of it in a similar context to where you’d run a 300B SET or whatever it makes sense, though it favours lower impedances, so a slightly different usage context. That said mine was happy enough driving my JR149s at low nearfield levels for a while. I’m pretty sure a Leak Stereo 20 would comfortably beat it in a volume level fight (it is a better amp all-round), but that may be down to valve amps clipping so much more gently than solid state.
 
Craig B said:
You don't really get a sense of just how tiny these things are until you see one, however, looking at their photo of the back panel certainly gives a clue.

s-l1600.jpg
Click to expand...

At their height of popularity you could get them even smaller (not an Amptastic), the input was a 3.5mm headphone jack and the speaker outputs were just tiny screw terminals! I had one somewhere, I may see if I can find it.
 
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